The highlight of the cruise was Taino Beach in Freeport, our first port of call. In Freeport, we got off the ship and walked to the taxi stand. Most of the people were going to the beaches by Port Lucaya. We chose Taino Beach because it was supposed to be more family friendly. It was great. The round trip cab ride was $14 per person. They did not charge for out three year old daughter. Entrance to the beach is free. For $8.00 we were able to reserve two beach loungers and a large umbrella for the day. (We felt that this was a great deal.) At the bar/food service area, they had bottles of water available for $2.00 each with is not bad. The beach itself was wonderful. The sand was powder soft. The water was warm and the weather was gorgeous. My family had a great time playing in the waves as they crashed near the beach. While playing in the sand, my daughter got a couple of strands of braids on each side of her hair. (Only $2 per braid.) After about 2.5 hours at the beach we headed back to the ship for a late lunch.

For Great Stirrup Cay, NCL's private island, we had priority tender available. While we missed the priority tender we got of the ship with the third tender ashore. Unfortunately, they were not ready for us on the island. After getting spoiled at Taino Beach, we were ready for another fun beach day. The water is crystal clear. Because the beach is a semi-circle with rocks that block the mouth, it is like a huge lagoon or salt water pool. Unfortunately the sand was not nearly as nice as the day before. Be that as it may, in order to make sure that we did not get dehydrated, I went to the bar to get some water. They told me that they cannot serve me any water because it was not drinkable. I asked if I could buy some water. They then told me that the bar was not open and as such, they could not sell me a bottle of water. Finally, they told me that I could walk to the other side of the beach where the food service station was to get some cups of water. After walking over there, I was informed that they do not yet have "passenger" cups available. They only had "crew" cups. (The available paper cups were the same ones we were being served with our kosher meals.) Finally, they gave them to me.

After about an hour and a half at the beach, we heard thunder and decided to get out of the water. After a few minutes of light drizzle, we decided to head back to the ship. We had to wait out the thunder before we could go back to the ship which was fine. While we were waiting, we noticed that there is nothing to do. While this was not a problem, it was a lost opportunity to wow us. Even a couple of speakers playing some music would have been nice. I started thinking about what would Royal Caribbean or Disney do to make an ok situation into a good experience.

We have been to Nassau multiple times and did not see it necessary to spend $100 pp to go to the water park at Atlantis. Additionally, we were not looking to shop. The prices for jewelry are not much better than you can get online. As such, we took a horse and carriage ride for a half hour, walked to the straw market for a little while then headed back to the ship to enjoy the pool while it was rather empty. We had a great day onboard.